THEDRUNKENMUNKEY
Breakfast Biryani
On the weekend brunch menu — Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 am to 3:30 pm
from the kitchen
Biryani for breakfast sounds like a provocation. In much of India it is just Sunday.
Our Breakfast Biryani sits on the weekend brunch menu, served Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 am to 3:30 pm, and it exists for the reason brunch exists everywhere: the best version of a big dish is the one eaten slowly, in daylight, with nothing planned afterwards. [OWNER: confirm the composition of the Breakfast Biryani, and how it differs from the dinner biryani]
Across much of India the weekend breakfast is a full-scale affair, and rice dishes belong to the morning every bit as much as to the evening. The idea that breakfast should be small and sweet is a fairly local one, and India has never been especially persuaded by it.
What we can tell you is what a biryani is, and why it belongs at this hour. Rice and spice cook together under a sealed lid so that nothing escapes, and the result has never made much sense in single portions. Brunch is the service that suits it: the tables are longer, the morning is slower, and nobody is waiting for your table at the far end of the room.
Come early in service if you want the room quiet, or late if you would rather the morning turned into an afternoon. It is worth knowing that brunch is a weekend service only: Monday to Friday we open at 4:00 pm, so a Wednesday craving has to wait for the weekend.
It sits on the menu alongside the Short-Rib Eggs Benedict and the French Toast, which tells you most of what you need to know about a weekend here. One dish from the Old Bombay end of the kitchen, two from somewhere else entirely, all landing on the same table at the same time.
Dietary & spice
Brunch dishes are not on our printed allergy menu, which covers the à la carte menu. Tell your server about any allergy before you order and the kitchen will work around it — there is more on that on our questions page.